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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27285793">Terrifying Fantasy World</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/stillinbeta/pseuds/stillinbeta'>stillinbeta</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>The Owl House (Cartoon)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>(but only in passing everyone's fine I promise), Gen, Hurt/Comfort, I hope to be the kind of parent Eda is someday, Implied/Referenced Self-Harm, Mild Angst, no YOU'RE projecting shut up, trans!Luz</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-10-30</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-10-30</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 17:20:20</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,322</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27285793</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/stillinbeta/pseuds/stillinbeta</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>When owlbert dragged a teenage boy through the portal, Eda's life had turned completely upside down. In a good way! But lately, the kid hasn't quite been his upbeat self. And now he wanted to Talk. In Private. </p><p>(Special thanks to seasparks and itscaravel for proofreading!)</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Eda Clawthorne &amp; Luz Noceda</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>11</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>141</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Terrifying Fantasy World</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>

    [cw: discussion of self-harm (but everyone is okay, promise!)]
</p><p>

    Eda Clawthorne had not signed up to be a parent. 
</p><p>

    Sure, she had a self-proclaimed King of Demons that lived in her house. Sometimes she cooked him a meal or dragged him to the park, but she was under no circumstances “raising” him. She was a terrible influence, and both of them knew it. She figured half the reason they hung out together is so there’d be someone to lead the inevitable jailbreak. 
</p><p>

    Hooty didn’t count either. He didn’t age, he had no moral code to speak of, and generally, Eda tried to ignore him. 
</p><p>

    But then along with his regular haul of knickknacks and tchotchkes, Owlbert had caught a teenage boy. A <em>human</em> teenage boy! Before she knew it, he was living in one of her closets with a sleeping bag and being far too excitable about every mundane thing on the Isles. 
</p><p>

    It was really amazing how the kid slotted right into her life. He’d gone from a mark to an accomplice to co-conspirator without her noticing, and now she couldn’t imagine a moment without him. Even if King kicked her out of the living room for “Guy’s Night” or she had to grovel in front of her old principal. He was family now. Closest thing Eda had. 
</p><p>

    Sometimes, he wanted advice. And of course, he did, she was the strongest witch in the boiling isles! If the question was “how do I outrun the cops” or “which street corner has the richest idiots,” she’d have plenty of answers. But “how does magic work” or “what’s the point of it all” weren’t so simple. She just improvised and hoped for the best. 
</p><p>

    “Hey, Eda?”
</p><p>

    And she could tell by his tone this was not going to be one of those easy questions. 
</p><p>

    “Yeah, kid?”
</p><p>

    “Can I talk to you for a second?”
</p><p>

    “Uh, sure, what’s up?”
</p><p>

    “In… in private, I mean.”
</p><p>

    She looked around with a raised eyebrow. King was napping on the floor. Whatever this was, it must be important. 
</p><p>

    The Owl House wasn’t big, but she had enough time on the walk to her nestroom to worry about where this conversation was going to go. Was he ready to leave? She knew logically that eventually summer would end and he’d go back to the human realm, but she’d hoped… 
</p><p>

    Well, hopes and six snails bought a pint of apple blood. She’d get over it. Eventually. 
</p><p>

    “So what’s so important you needed to drag me up here?” she asked.
</p><p>

    “I’m sorry. Were you busy? We can—”
</p><p>

    “Woah, slow down kid, I’m only kidding. You okay?”
</p><p>

    “I… don’t know. Maybe?”
</p><p>

    That was an uncomfortably vague answer. What was going on?
</p><p>

    “Did someone hurt you? Was it that green-haired kid? I swear if she—”
</p><p>

    “No, no, nothing like that! She’s… been really nice to me actually.”
</p><p>

    Okay, maybe Eda didn’t have many maternal instincts, and maybe she overcompensated by being protective. Nobody was going to hurt her clutch. Family. Whatever. 
</p><p>

    “Sorry, sorry. I’ll listen. Come sit with me.”
</p><p>

    The room didn’t have any chairs, but she patted the nest in what she hoped was an inviting manner. He climbed awkwardly over the rim and sat opposite her. 
</p><p>

    Everything about his body language screamed something was wrong, but if he’d wanted a hug he’d have sat closer to her. Teens needed their space.
</p><p>

    “So… I…”
</p><p>

    A beat. 
</p><p>

    “Take your time,” she said, in what she desperately hoped was a patient voice.
</p><p>

    “I… um. So back ho—back in the human world, you know, I never really fit in.”
</p><p>

    That stutter was filed away for further investigation. It was listening time.
</p><p>

    “I always just felt like something was missing, you know? I was never comfortable around the other kids, and they all thought I was so weird. I was really pretty miserable.”
</p><p>

    “Kinda hard to believe, honestly. Everyone here loves you!”
</p><p>

    “Yeah…” He blushed a bit, rubbing the back of his neck. “But that’s how things were. <em>Mama </em>was sending me away to this camp to help me learn to fit in better or whatever. It was going to be miserable, and I could’ve argued against it, but I just… couldn’t bother. It was so much easier to just go with the flow. Drift along.”
</p><p>

    “You? Go with the flow?”
</p><p>

    “Well, you changed that. You and everyone else here. You made me feel like I belonged.”
</p><p>

    “Damn right we did! Us weirdos gotta stick together, right?”
</p><p>

    That got a faint smile out of him. “We sure do! And for a while everything was perfect. People liked me! I had actual friends! I went on adventures! I almost got eaten by a weird wizard-monster!”
</p><p>

    “Heh. Yeah, that was crazy.”
</p><p>

    “I was so sure that… funk was behind me. What more could I want? Everything in my wildest fantasies had finally come true!”
</p><p>

    “I’m sensing a but.”
</p><p>

    “I… it started coming back. That feeling. Something’s just off.”
</p><p>

    Thinking back, yeah, the kid really did seem a little less himself, lately. Eda was never sure if she was just seeing things, but it seemed like his smiles didn’t reach his eyes anymore. Sometimes the laughs felt just a little bit forced. And what should’ve been the biggest giveaway: His magic was way weaker. 
</p><p>

    Every witch worth their salt knew that magic was connected to your emotions. She’d chalked it up to hormones or homesickness or something, but those little light globes were getting dimmer by the day. 
</p><p>

    Some parent she was. He was getting more depressed every day, and she hadn’t even noticed! A wave of guilt hit her, but she swallowed it down. There’d be time for that later. 
</p><p>

    “I… I should’ve noticed. I’m sorry,” she finally said. “I know I’m not really a substitute for your mah-MEE, but I still could’ve… I’m sorry.”
</p><p>

    He gave a grim smile. “It’s okay. I’ve got a lot of practice hiding it.”
</p><p>

    “Oh, kiddo…” 
</p><p>

    The look on his face spoke of a weariness far beyond his years. Once again she wanted to punch someone, something, whatever would fix this. If only it were that easy.
</p><p>

    “But that’s not everything,” he said quietly.
</p><p>

    Oh no. He didn’t mean… 
</p><p>

    “Kid, I need you to be honest with me. Are you okay? Are you safe? Have you been hurting yourself?”
</p><p>

    His eyes went wide. “No. Yes! Nothing like that, I swear.”
</p><p>

    “Have you… thought about it?”
</p><p>

    “No!”
</p><p>

    “It’s okay, I won’t be mad, I swear. But if you need someone to talk to...”
</p><p>

    “I will come to you first. I promise.”
</p><p>

    Eda had a lot of experience judging faces, and either the kid was a Hexes Hold-em shark or he was telling the truth. She let out a sigh of relief. 
</p><p>

    “Sorry. I didn’t mean to spook ya. I just… I just needed to make sure.”
</p><p>

    “Thank you.” 
</p><p>

    “Any time.”
</p><p>

    After that, they both needed a moment to collect themselves. She was relieved, he looked slightly terrified, and they were both nervous. 
</p><p>

    “So…” she prompted when it looked like he’d recovered a little bit. 
</p><p>

    “I… I guess… wow, this is hard.”
</p><p>

    “Take your time.”
</p><p>

    He did. Several times he opened his mouth to say something but couldn’t quite follow through on it. 
</p><p>

    Eda decided her role here was to wait patiently. She was getting a little antsy but held the jitters in as best she could. The last thing she wanted was the kid to think she didn’t want to be here. 
</p><p>

    “I… so you remember I showed you those “Good Witch Azura” books? 
</p><p>

    Eda couldn’t resist rolling her eyes. “I think you’ve brought them up a couple times, yes.”
</p><p>

    He flushed. “Y… yeah. I’m pretty obsessed, honestly. And I’ve only shown you the really tame stuff.”
</p><p>

    “Really.”
</p><p>

    “Yeah. You didn’t have to read any of my fanfic, or see all my witchsona reference sheets…”
</p><p>

    “Your witch-what-now?”
</p><p>

    “Witchsona. It’s like a fursona but…” 
</p><p>

    He noticed the blank look Eda must’ve been giving and course-corrected.
</p><p>

    “…right, you wouldn’t know that either. I’ll explain furries some other time. A Witchsona is basically… well, I really liked the Azura universe. And when I ran out of books to read, I thought I’d try making my own adventures. So I wrote stories.”
</p><p>

    “The Fanfictions.”
</p><p>

    “Yeah. And sometimes it’s fun to imagine your own characters in that universe. So sometimes people think… what it would be like if they were witches. And so they… so I created a… version of myself. But a witch.”
</p><p>

    Eda nodded, digesting this as best she could. 
</p><p>

    “I gotta say, as an actual witch, that’s pretty weird.”
</p><p>

    “Yeah, um, there’s a reason I’ve never shown those to anyone here. I got a taste of how it felt when Gus explained what people here think of humans.”
</p><p>

    “Huh.”
</p><p>

    "Yeah. That was weird, even by Burning Isles standards.”
</p><p>

    It looked like the kid was cheering up a little bit, but it didn’t last.
</p><p>

    “Anyway, I’m rambling. The point is… There’s a weird thing about the human realm. Well, a lot of weird things actually. But one weird thing is that all witches over there are women.”
</p><p>

    “What? Can guys just not do magic there? No wonder you hated it.”
</p><p>

    “Heh. Usually, they were just called wizards.”
</p><p>

    “Ugh. I hate those guys. So pompous.”
</p><p>

    “Yeah, I haven’t been impressed so far either. But the point is, I grew up knowing that witches were girls. So I thought that could never be me. Then I got here, and it turned out that didn’t matter at all!”
</p><p>

    “And that’s a good thing. You… don’t really sound like it’s a good thing.”
</p><p>

    “It was, at first! I could live out my dream, become a witch, and nobody would look at me funny! Well, they would, but only because I’m hilarious. And have weird ears.”
</p><p>

    “Are people bullying you about your ears? I swear if they…”
</p><p>

    “No, Eda, it’s fine.”
</p><p>

    The red cleared from Eda’s vision, and she gestured for him to continue. 
</p><p>

    “I eventually realised, though, that I was kinda disappointed.”
</p><p>

    “Disappointed in what?”
</p><p>

    “That… that ‘witch’ isn’t just for girls here. Sometimes I wish it was.”
</p><p>

    “…”
</p><p>

    “That’s a messed up thing to think, right? Like Gus is a witch, and he’s awesome! And Edric and Jerbo and everyone else. They’re really cool and talented and I’m glad they can do magic. So I didn’t understand where these feelings were coming from.”
</p><p>

    He wasn’t looking at Eda anymore, and his voice was getting very quiet. It was unusual for him to be quiet. Honestly slightly unsettling, and that was coming from someone who regularly dealt with Hooty. 
</p><p>

    “I… finally figured it out, I think. It’s not that boys shouldn’t be witches. It’s that… I shouldn’t be one.”
</p><p>

    “Wait, what are you saying? You don’t want to be a witch anymore?”
</p><p>

    “I…”
</p><p>

    His voice was so quiet that she had to lean in just to hear him. 
</p><p>

    “…I don’t think I want to be a boy anymore.”
</p><p>

    “Oh.”
</p><p>

    Eda was officially out of her depth. At this point, she desperately wanted to turn to the adult in the room and ask them to take over. Someone who knew how to handle this kind of situation. 
</p><p>

    But of course, it was just her, there. And there was a kid in front of her, tears in their eyes, who needed help right now. So she did the only thing she could think of: grabbed them as tight as she possibly could. 
</p><p>

    “I love you so much,” she whispered. “It’s gonna be okay.”
</p><p>

    And then the kid was sobbing in her arms. Messy crying, snot all over her shirt. Precisely the kind of thing she used to think about when asserting not wanting to be a parent. But at the moment, she wasn’t even close to caring. Her kid needed her, and she wasn’t going anywhere until that stopped being the case. 
</p><p>

    “Sssh,” she said, as gently as she could. “Just let it out.”
</p><p>

    A few minutes later, when the sobbing had subsided to just sniffles, she pulled back and looked at the kid in front of her.
</p><p>

    “I… may not understand exactly what you’re going through,” she reluctantly admitted. “But I am going to be here for you every step of the way, okay? We’re gonna figure this all out together.”
</p><p>

    “T—thank you.”
</p><p>

    She dug around in the dark corners of her brain, trying to figure out what would help here. 
</p><p>

    “I know a really good apothecary in the next town over. A real one. She might have a potion or something you could take.”
</p><p>

    “R—really?”
</p><p>

    “Sure. We’ve got magic, here, how hard can it be?”
</p><p>

    “But… you believe me?”
</p><p>

    “Of course I do. Why wouldn’t I?”
</p><p>

    “I… back home, people aren’t always… things aren’t easy, there.”
</p><p>

    “Ugh. That’s rough, kid, I’m sorry. But you’re here now, and if <em>anyone</em> gives you crap, they’ll answer to me, okay?”
</p><p>

    “Eda?”
</p><p>

    “What, too much?”
</p><p>

    “I love you.”
</p><p>

    There was a swelling in Eda’s cold heart. She hadn’t heard that from anyone in a long time, let alone from the kid. It filled her with hope, and also with a weird urge to build another nest. Maybe this one was getting a little scratchy. 
</p><p>

    “I love you too, kid. You’re the best thing that ever got dragged through that portal.”
</p><p>

    “Awww. Even better than the glowy pen?”
</p><p>

    There was the kid she recognised. She’d missed that Cheshire grin.
</p><p>

    “Don’t push your luck.”
</p><p>

    Finally, the tension was leaving the nest. Eda cracked her back and her joints. Her kid was starting to get up.
</p><p>

    “Oh, um, are you going to change your name?” she asked.
</p><p>

    They paused for a moment, lost in thought. But then they reached into their back pocket and produced a well-worn piece of notebook paper. It showed a young girl in a very silly witch’s hat and a long cloak, holding a staff that looked just like Azura’s. And across the top, there was a name.
</p><p>

    “Call me Luz.”
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Amity: "I'm sure glad this new member of my social circle is a boy I don't need to worry about being attracted to."<br/>Luz: :)</p><p>I love Eda and Luz's relationship so much, I just needed to write about it. And if I threw in some trans coming-out wish fulfillment, who's gonna stop me? You? </p><p>If you ever feel like Luz does in this and need someone to talk to, come find me on Twitter at @stillinbeta. I'm happy to help.</p></blockquote></div></div>
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